American Century Companies Inc. Has $53.84 Million Stock Holdings in Ashland Inc. $ASH

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) by 807.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,123,804 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,000,006 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned 2.46% of Ashland worth $53,841,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ASH. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Ashland during the third quarter valued at approximately $53,000. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in Ashland by 28.9% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 11,703 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $561,000 after buying an additional 2,623 shares in the last quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC boosted its position in Ashland by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC now owns 4,789 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $229,000 after buying an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. AXQ Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Ashland in the 3rd quarter valued at $382,000. Finally, Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ashland by 23.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 19,188 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $919,000 after buying an additional 3,616 shares during the period. 93.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on ASH. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Ashland from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Argus boosted their price objective on Ashland from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Wall Street Zen raised Ashland from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of Ashland in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Ashland in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ashland presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.67.

Ashland Stock Performance

ASH opened at $57.43 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 3.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market cap of $2.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.80, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.42. Ashland Inc. has a 12-month low of $45.21 and a 12-month high of $65.64. The business has a 50 day moving average of $61.80 and a 200-day moving average of $55.84.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 2nd. The basic materials company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.03. Ashland had a negative net margin of 38.26% and a positive return on equity of 7.58%. The firm had revenue of $386.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $401.42 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.28 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ashland Inc. will post 4.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Ashland Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 15th. Investors of record on Sunday, March 1st will be given a dividend of $0.415 per share. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 27th. Ashland’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -10.99%.

Ashland Profile

Ashland Inc is a global specialty chemicals company that develops, manufactures and supplies a broad range of performance and process-critical additives, ingredients and technologies. Its portfolio spans performance additives for coatings, adhesives and sealants; specialty ingredients for personal care and pharmaceutical applications; and process aids used in water treatment and other industrial processes. Ashland aims to address customer challenges by delivering tailored solutions that improve product performance, processing efficiency and sustainability outcomes.

Founded in 1924 as the Ashland Oil & Refining Company, the firm gradually expanded into the specialty chemicals sector over the second half of the 20th century.